Nonlinear microwave response of aluminum weak-link Josephson oscillators

We present the driven response at T=30 mK of 6 GHz superconducting resonators constructed from capacitively-shunted three-dimensional (3D) aluminum nanobridge superconducting quantum interference devices (nanoSQUIDs). We observe flux modulation of the resonant frequency in quantitative agreement with numerical calculation and characteristic of near-ideal short weak-link junctions. Under strong microwave excitation, we observe stable bifurcation in devices with coupled quality factor (Q) ranging from 30-3500. Near this bias point, parametric amplification with > 20 dB gain, 40 MHz bandwidth, and near quantum-limited noise performance is observed. Our results indicate that 3D nanobridge junctions are attractive circuit elements to realize quantum bits. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3570693]